The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  condemnation in fierce burning flames

  In the thick cloud & darkness, & the voice went forth from

  The cloud. O rent in sunder from Jerusalem the Harlot daughter!

  In an eternal condemnation in fierce burning flames

  Of torment unendurable: and if once a Delusion be found

  Woman must perish & the Heavens of Heavens remain no more

  My Father gave to me command to murder Albion

  In unreviving Death; my Love, my Luvah orderd me in night

  To murder Albion the King of Men, he fought in battles fierce

  He conquerd Luvah my beloved: he took me and my Father

  20 He slew them: I revived them to life in my warm bosom

  He saw them issue from my bosom, dark in Jealousy

  He burnd before me: Luvah framd the Knife & Luvah gave

  The Knife into his daughters hand: such thing was never known

  Before in Albions land, that one should die a death never to be reviv’d

  For in our battles we the Slain men view with pity and love:

  We soon revive them in the secret of our tabernacles

  But I Vala, Luvahs daughter, keep his body embalmd in moral laws

  With spices of sweet odours of lovely jealous stupefaction:

  Within my bosom, lest he arise to life & slay my Luvah

  30 Pity me then O Lamb of God! O Jesus pity me!

  Come into Luvahs Tents, and seek not to revive the Dead!

  So sang she: and the Spindle turnd furious as she sang:

  The Children of Jerusalem the Souls of those who sleep

  Were caught into the flax of her Distaff, & in her Cloud

  To weave Jerusalem a body according to her will

  A Dragon form on Zion Hills most ancient promontory

  The Spindle turnd in blood & fire: loud sound the trumpets

  Of war: the cymbals play loud before the Captains

  With Cambel & Gwendolen in dance and solemn song

  40 The Cloud of Rahab vibrating with the Daughters of Albion

  Los saw terrified, melted with pity & divided in wrath

  He sent them over the narrow seas in pity and love

  Among the Four Forests of Albion which overspread all the Earth

  They go forth & return swift as a flash of lightning,

  Among the tribes of warriors: among the Stones of power!

  Against Jerusalem they rage thro all the Nations of Europe

  Thro Italy & Grecia, to Lebanon & Persia & India.

  The Serpent Temples thro the Earth, from the wide Plain of Salisbury

  Resound with cries of Victims, shouts & songs & dying groans

  50 And flames of dusky fire, to Amalek, Canaan and Moab[.]

  And Rahab like a dismal and indefinite hovering Cloud

  Refusd to take a definite form, she hoverd over all the Earth

  Calling the definite, sin: defacing every definite form;

  Invisible, or Visible, stretchd out in length or spread in breadth:

  Over the Temples drinking groans of victims weeping in pity,

  And joying in the pity, howling over Jerusalems walls.

  Hand slept on Skiddaws top: drawn by the love of beautiful

  Cambel: his bright, beaming Counterpart, divided from him

  And her delusive light beamd fierce above the Mountain,

  60 Soft: invisible: drinking his sighs in sweet intoxication:

  Drawing out fibre by fibre: returning to Albions Tree

  At night: and in the morning to Skiddaw; she sent him over

  Mountainous Wales into the Loom of Cathedron fibre by fibre:

  He ran in tender nerves across Europe to Jerusalems Shade,

  To weave Jerusalem a Body repugnant to the Lamb.

  Hyle on East Moor in rocky Derbyshire, rav’d to the Moon

  For Gwendolen: she took up in bitter tears his anguishd heart,

  That apparent to all in Eternity, glows like the Sun in the breast:

  She hid it in his ribs & back: she hid his tongue with teeth

  70 In terrible convulsions pitying & gratified drunk with pity

  Glowing with loveliness before him, becoming apparent

  According to his changes: she roll’d his kidneys round

  Into two irregular forms: and looking on Albions dread Tree,

  She wove two vessels of seed, beautiful as Skiddaws snow;

  Giving them bends of self interest & selfish natural virtue:

  She hid them in his loins; raving he ran among the rocks,

  Compelld into a shape of Moral Virtue against the Lamb.

  The invisible lovely one giving him a form according to

  His Law a form against the Lamb of God opposd to Mercy

  80 And playing in the thunderous Loom in sweet intoxication

  Filling cups of silver & crystal with shrieks & cries, with groans

  And dolorous sobs: the wine of lovers in the Wine-press of Luvah

  O sister Cambel said Gwendolen, as their long beaming light

  Mingled above the Mountain[:] what shall we do to keep

  These awful forms in our soft bands: vdistracted with trembling

  PLATE 81

  I have mockd those who refused cruelty & I have admired

  The cruel Warrior. I have refused to give love to Merlin the piteous.

  He brings to me the Images of his Love & I reject in chastity

  And turn them out into the streets for Harlots to be food

  To the stern Warrior. I am become perfect in beauty over my Warrior

  For Men are caught by Love: Woman is caught by Pride

  That Love may only be obtaind in the passages of Death.

  Let us look: let us examine: is the Cruel become an Infant

  Or is he still a cruel Warrior? look Sisters, look! O piteous

  10 I have destroyd Wandring Reuben who strove to bind my Will

  I have stripd off Josephs beautiful integument for my Beloved,

  The Cruel-one of Albion: to clothe him in gems of my Zone

  I have named him Jehovah of Hosts. Humanity is become

  A weeping Infant in ruind lovely Jerusalems folding Cloud:

  In Heaven Love begets Love! but Fear is the Parent of Earthly Love!

  And he who will not bend to Love must be subdud by Fear,

  PLATE 82

  I have heard Jerusalems groans; from Vala’s cries & lamentations

  I gather our eternal fate: Outcasts from life and love:

  Unless we find a way to bind these awful Forms to our

  Embrace we shall perish annihilate, discoverd our Delusions.

  Look I have wrought without delusion: Look! I have wept!

  And given soft milk mingled together with the spirits of flocks

  Of lambs and doves, mingled together in cups and dishes

  Of painted clay; the mighty Hyle is become a weeping infant;

  Soon shall the Spectres of the Dead follow my weaving threads.

  10 The Twelve Daughters of Albion attentive listen in secret shades

  On Cambridge and Oxford beaming soft uniting with Rahabs cloud

  While Gwendolen spoke to Cambel turning soft the spinning reel:

  Or throwing the wingd shuttle; or drawing the cords with softest songs

  The golden cords of the Looms animate beneath their touches soft,

  Along the Island white, among the Druid Temples, while Gwendolen

  Spoke to the Daughters of Albion standing on Skiddaws top.

  So saying she took a Falsehood & hid it in her left hand:

  To entice her Sisters away to Babylon on Euphrates.

  And thus she closed her left hand and utterd her Falshood:

  20 Forgetting that Falshood is prophetic, she hid her hand behind her,

  Upon her back behind her loins & thus utterd her Deceit.

  I heard Enitharmon say to Los: Let the Daughters of Albion

  Be scatterd abroad and let the name of Albion be forgott
en:

  Divide them into three: name them Amalek Canaan & Moab:

  Let Albion remain a desolation without an inhabitant:

  And let the Looms of Enitharmon & the Furnaces of Los

  Create Jerusalem, & Babylon & Egypt & Moab & Amalek,

  And Helle & Hesperia & Hindostan & China & Japan.

  But hide America, for a Curse an Altar of Victims & a Holy Place.

  30 See Sisters Canaan is pleasant, Egypt is as the Garden of Eden:

  Babylon is our chief desire, Moab our bath in summer:

  Let us lead the stems of this Tree let us plant it before Jerusalem

  To judge the Friend of Sinners to death without the Veil:

  To cut her off from America, to close up her secret Ark:

  And the fury of Man exhaust in War, Woman permanent remain

  See how the fires of our loins point eastward to Babylon

  Look, Hyle is become an infant Love: look! behold! see him lie!

  Upon my bosom, look! here is the lovely wayward form

  That gave me sweet delight by his torments beneath my Veil;

  40 By the fruit of Albions Tree I have fed him with sweet milk

  By contentions of the mighty for Sacrifice of Captives;

  Humanity the Great Delusion: is changd to War & Sacrifice:

  I have naild his hands on Beth Rabbim & his [feet] on Heshbons Wall:

  O that I could live in his sight: O that I could bind him to my arm.

  So saying: She drew aside her Veil from Mam-Tor to Dovedale

  Discovering her own perfect beauty to the Daughters of Albion

  And Hyle a winding Worm beneath [her Loom upon the scales.

  Hyle was become a winding Worm:] & not a weeping Infant.

  Trembling & pitying she screamd & fled upon the wind:

  50 Hyle was a winding Worm and herself perfect in beauty:

  The desarts tremble at his wrath: they shrink themselves in fear.

  Cambel trembled with jealousy: she trembled! she envied!

  The envy ran thro Cathedrons Looms into the Heart

  Of mild Jerusalem, to destroy the Lamb of God. Jerusalem

  Languishd upon Mount Olivet, East of mild Zions Hill.

  Los saw the envious blight above his Seventh Furnace

  On Londons Tower on the Thames: he drew Cambel in wrath,

  Into his thundering Bellows, heaving it for a loud blast!

  And with the blast of his Furnace upon fishy Billingsgate,

  60 Beneath Albions fatal Tree, before the Gate of Los:

  Shewd her the fibres of her beloved to ameliorate

  The envy; loud she labourd in the Furnace of fire,

  To form the mighty form of Hand according to her will.

  In the Furnaces of Los & in the Wine-press treading day & night

  Naked among the human clusters: bringing wine of anguish

  To feed the afflicted in the Furnaces: she minded not

  The raging flames, the she returnd [consumd day after day

  A redning skeleton in howling woe:] instead of beauty

  Defo[r]mity: she gave her beauty to another: bearing abroad

  70 Her struggling torment in her iron arms: and like a chain,

  Binding his wrists & ankles with the iron arms of love.

  Gwendolen saw the Infant in her siste[r]s arms; she howld

  Over the forests with bitter tears, and over the winding Worm

  Repentant: and she also in the eddying wind of Los’s Bellows

  Began her dolorous task of love in the Wine-press of Luvah

  To form the Worm into a form of love by tears & pain.

  The Sisters saw! trembling ran thro their Looms! soften[in]g mild

  Towards London: then they saw the Furna[c]es opend, & in tears

  Began to give their souls away in the Furna[c]es of affliction.

  80 Los saw & was comforted at his Furnaces uttering thus his voice.

  I know I am Urthona keeper of the Gates of Heaven,

  And that I can at will expatiate in the Gardens of bliss;

  But pangs of love draw me down to my loins which are

  Become a fountain of veiny pipes: O Albion! my brother!

  PLATE 83

  Corrup[t]ability appears upon thy limbs, and never more

  Can I arise and leave thy side, but labour here incessant

  Till thy awaking: yet alas I shall forget Eternity:

  Against the Patriarchal pomp and cruelty, labouring incessant

  I shall become an Infant horror. Enion! Tharmas! friends

  Absorb me not in such dire grief: O Albion, my brother!

  Jerusalem hungers in the desart: affection to her children!

  The scorn’d and contemnd youthful girl, where shall she fly?

  10 Sussex shuts up her Villages. Hants, Devon & Wilts

  Surrounded with masses of stone in orderd forms, determine then

  A form for Vala and a form for Luvah, here on the Thames

  Where the Victim nightly howls beneath the Druids knife:

  A Form of Vegetation, nail them down on the stems of Mystery:

  O when shall the Saxon return with the English his redeemed brother!

  O when shall the Lamb of God descend among the Reprobate!

  I woo to Amalek to protect my fugitives[.] Amalek trembles:

  I call to Canaan & Moab in my night watches, they mourn:

  They listen not to my cry, they rejo[i]ce among their warriors

  Woden and Thor and Friga wholly consume my Saxons:

  20 On their enormous Altars built in the terrible north:

  From Irelands rocks to Scandinavia Persia and Tartary:

  From the Atlantic Sea to the universal Erythrean.

  Found ye London! enormous City! weeps thy River?

  Upon his parent bosom lay thy little ones O Land

  Forsaken. Surrey and Sussex are Enitharmons Chamber.

  Where I will build her a Couch of repose & my pillars

  Shall surround her in beautiful labyrinths: Oothoon?

  Where hides my child? in Oxford hidest thou with Antamon?

  In graceful hidings of error: in merciful deceit

  30 Lest Hand the terrible destroy his Affection. thou hidest her:

  In chaste appearances for sweet deceits of love & modesty

  Immingled, interwoven, glistening to the sickening sight.

  Let Cambel and her Sisters sit within the Mundane Shell:

  Forming the fluctuating Globe according to their will.

  According as they weave the little embryon nerves & veins

  The Eye, the little Nostrils, & the delicate Tongue & Ears

  Of labyrinthine intricacy: so shall they fold the World

  That whatever is seen upon the Mundane Shell, the same

  Be seen upon the Fluctuating Earth woven by the Sisters.

  40 And sometimes the Earth shall roll in the Abyss & sometimes

  Stand in the Center & sometimes stretch flat in the Expanse,

  According to the will of the lovely Daughters of Albion.

  Sometimes it shall assimilate with mighty Golgonooza:

  Touching its summits: & sometimes divided roll apart.

  As a beautiful Veil so these Females shall fold & unfold

  According to their will the outside surface of the Earth

  An outside shadowy Surface superadded to the real Surface;

  Which is unchangeable for ever & ever Amen: so be it!

  Separate Albions Sons gently from their Emanations,

  50 Weaving bowers of delight on the current of infant Thames

  Where the old Parent still retains his youth as I alas!

  Retain my youth eight thousand and five hundred years.

  The labourer of ages in the Valleys of Despair:

  The land is markd for desolation & unless we plant

  The seeds of Cities & of Villages in the Human bosom

  Albion must be a rock of blood: mark ye the points

  Whe
re Cities shall remain & where Villages[;] for the rest:

  It must lie in confusion till Albions time of awaking.

  Place the Tribes of Llewellyn in America for a hiding place:

  60 Till sweet Jerusalem emanates again into Eternity

  The night falls thick: I go upon my watch: be attentive:

  The Sons of Albion go forth; I follow from my Furnaces:

  That they return no more: that a place be prepard on Euphrates

  Listen to your Watchmans voice: sleep not before the Furnaces

  Eternal Death stands at the door. O God pity our labours.

  So Los spoke, to the Daughters of Beulah while his Emanation

  Like a faint rainbow waved before him in the awful gloom

  Of London City on the Thames from Surrey Hills to Highgate:

  Swift turn the silver spindles, & the golden weights play soft

  70 And lulling harmonies beneath the Looms, from Caithness in the north

  To Lizard-point & Dover in the south: his Emanation

  Joy’d in the many weaving threads in bright Cathedrons Dome

  Weaving the Web of life for Jerusalem, the Web of life

  Down flowing into Entuthons Vales glistens with soft affections.

  While Los arose upon his Watch, and down from Golgonooza

  Putting on his golden sandals to walk from mountain to mountain,

  He takes his way, girding himself with gold & in his hand

  Holding his iron mace: The Spectre remains attentive

  Alternate they watch in night: alternate labour in day

  80 Before the Furnaces labouring, while Los all night watches

  The stars rising & setting, & the meteors & terrors of night.

  With him went down the Dogs of Leutha, at his feet

  They lap the water of the trembling Thames then follow swift

  And thus he heard the voice of Albions daughters on Euphrates,

  Our Father Albions land: O it was a lovely land! & the Daughters of Beulah

  Walked up and down in its green mountains: but Hand is fled

  Away: & mighty Hyle: & after them Jerusalem is gone: Awake

  PLATE 84

  Highgates heights & Hampsteads, to Poplar Hackney & Bow

  To Islington & Paddington & the Brook of Albions River

  We builded Jerusalem as a City & a Temple: from Lambeth

  We began our Foundations; lovely Lambeth! O lovely Hills

  Of Camberwell, we shall behold you no more in glory & pride

  For Jerusalem lies in ruins & the Furnaces of Los are builded there

  You are now shrunk up to a narrow Rock in the midst of the Sea

  But here we build Babylon on Euphrates, compelld to build

  And to inhabit, our Little-ones to clothe in armour of the gold